The Two-Way

7:16 am

Sun December 29, 2013

Thousands Still Without Power As More Snow Due To Fall

Maine resident Jim Ridley uses a flashlight to get his mail Thursday. Thousands may be without power well into next week if snow and ice hit the state Sunday night.

Robert F. BukatyAP

A massive post-Christmas package of precipitation is headed up the East Coast today. The storm is predicted to dump snow and ice from Boston on up and promises to vex residents already a week without power since the last winter storm.

The storm is carrying drenching rain through the Carolinas, Mid-Atlantic and southern New England during the day. The downpour will reduce visibility and make travel difficult, according to Accuweather.com.

The rain will run into cold air around New York about noon and turn to snow in Bangor, Maine, by mid-afternoon, traveling up into New Brunswick, Canada, dumping up to 12 inches of snow and threatening to bring down more trees and power lines.

In northern Maine, about 5,000 who have already spent Christmas week without power could be in the dark well into the middle of next week, as The Boston Globe reports:

"Many of those will have to wait at least until Jan. 1. If the region gets hit with more snow and ice Sunday night, as feared, they could wait longer, a Bangor Hydro Electric Co. spokeswoman said."

"A lot of people are frustrated," said John R. Bannister, a selectman in Blue Hill, a coastal town where about 500 homes remained without electricity Friday. "There are some people that literally have had no power now for a week, since last Sunday, and they live in trailers and it's cold. And when the power comes back on, an awful lot of them are going to have frozen-solid pipes and then deal with the next mess."

Plenty of customers are angry at power companies, but many more gave thanks and restaurants offered free meals to hundreds of out-of-state crews who gave up their holidays, working 17-hour shifts to restore power, the Globe reports.